It's a Tough Job Market for White-Collar Workers

Official figures show that the job market is in robust health, but the reality is very different for millions of American workers. The number of people who have been looking for work for more than six months is up more than 50% since the end of 2022, and people laid off from white-collar jobs are having an especially hard time finding new roles, the Wall Street Journal reports. In fields including technology, finance, law, and the media, businesses that grew quickly after the pandemic have largely frozen hiring.

• More than 1.6 million of the 7 million unemployed in November had been out of work for more than six months, and more than 4 million others were working part-time because they couldn't find a full-time job, according to the Labor Department.

• Many jobseekers have been switching industries, though workers like Josh McLarty, who was laid off from his job at an Atlanta robotics startup in April, haven't been able to find jobs in different fields. McLarty, who has applied for more than 500 jobs, tells the Journal that he believes his resume suggests to employers like supermarkets that he won't be "in it for the long haul."
• Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter, says companies seeking to make cutbacks have focused on layers of middle management, and AI is replacing some roles once held by white-collar professionals, Forbes reports. "If these trends persist, even as interest rates fall, it could be evidence that the economy is fundamentally changing due to new technologies," Pollak says.
• The number of fields where hiring remains strong has been shrinking. The Journal reports that more than half of the overall job creation over the last 12 months has been in healthcare and government work.

(More job market stories.)